


This Time (We'll Get it Right)

by GhostZonePrince



Category: Danny Phantom
Genre: F/M, M/M, Multi, OC's - Freeform, Pompous Pep, Time Travel, college Vlad, college days, college jack, college maddie, im bad at tags
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-26
Updated: 2021-03-01
Packaged: 2021-03-17 22:07:48
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 13,705
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29723940
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GhostZonePrince/pseuds/GhostZonePrince
Summary: The Guys in White destroyed a large segment of time and thanks to Clockwork Danny managed to escape, but the kicker is that he will never be able to get back home. Instead he now has to help the younger versions of his parents and Vlad Masters build a proto portal, and try to survive his life as a college student in the 80's.
Relationships: Danny Fenton/Vlad Masters, Jack Fenton/Maddie Fenton
Comments: 9
Kudos: 54
Collections: Pompous Pep Discord - Our Fanfics





	1. The letter

Danny’s body felt like it was being crushed, and the man was hardly conscious enough to understand why. The pain that seared through his sides hurt worse as he woke up, the numbness of sleep fading as his panic set in. 

He gasped for breath, but the stabbing agony in his ribs made him cry out. Danny couldn’t remember the last time he felt this bad, and that was saying something when he had been ripped apart by the ghost portal twice. His lungs burned with each breath, and his head pounded like he had broken through a brick wall with it. Danny tried to recall the events leading up to the moment he woke up, the events he believed caused his unconsciousness, but the only thing he could really remember was screaming and Vlad Masters face. 

Vlad’s pale blue face inches away as he yells at Danny, the words getting eaten by the loud noise that surrounded them. He couldn’t remember what he was yelling, or why. Danny couldn’t forget how warm Vlad felt against him, but he was sure that was just because of their opposing cores. 

Still, that small memory wasn’t enough for him. Danny needed to know what happened, and where he was. He had a good idea where he was, but that only caused more confusion that his aching head didn’t need. 

Despite his body's protests Danny managed to open his eyes, and sit up. His ribs protested but he needed to move and get his bearings. He wasted no time getting onto his feet and immediately regretted it as the room around him spun in a way that let Danny know that if he didn’t move slowly from then on he’d never be able to eat again without throwing up. 

Dizziness hit Danny like a train, making him grab a wall in order to support himself. The green brick began to crumble under his hand, but as soon as he took his hand away it stopped. 

The room around him was familiar in the same way the rotted remains of a castle was familiar to its previous inhabitants. Danny knew the layout around him but the walls were broken with large pieces missing, and the large pendulum that had once swung by the very window Danny had been laying under was stopped. He had never seen Clockworks tower in such disregard, and that was all Danny needed for his overactive imagination to turn full throttle. 

“What happened here?” He asked, half expecting an answer from the tower's master. When no answer came Danny knew he was alone. Clockwork had pulled Danny to his tower a number of times, but this was different. The time ghost was always there to explain what was going on, and what needed to be done. This time Danny woke up alone and injured, without any way of knowing how long he had been under or why.

As he tried to push himself forward, to walk out of the ruins of the small room Danny realized how injured he actually was. He nearly fell as he stepped down, and if he had been able to ignore a twisted ankle while standing up because of his ribs, how bad was everything else? 

The man cast his gaze down to his own body, horrified to see the familiar white and red shirt stained with large crusted brown splotches of what he could only imagine was his own blood. 

His pants were ruined by tears and burns that revealed the damaged skin underneath. There was a long line of stitches on his right leg that he had no recollection of getting, nor did he recall getting the bandages that wrapped around his head. There was no doubt in his mind that he had a concussion, and he was even sure he had a few sets of broken ribs. 

He had burns on his arms, but they looked old. They were mostly healed with little to no scarring thanks to his ghostly healing factor, which only made him ask one of the many questions that was on his mind.

“How long have I been out?”

There was still no answer, but this time the halfa was expecting it. If Clockwork wasn’t there when he’d wake up then there was no reason he’d be there now. Something was keeping his host away, and he needed to know what it was.

With a tentative step Danny moved forward out of the room and into the main landing of the tower. He was relieved to see he didn’t have to climb down the monstrous staircase that extended upwards past Danny’s field of vision, but he cursed the few stairs he was going to have to climb down. 

“At least there’s a railing.” He mumbled to himself. 

As he descended down to the main floor of the tower he began to notice more and more damages done to the building. The mass amount of clocks that the owner had been given from Danny over the past few years were all broken, the glass shattered in some and others were gone along with the piece of the wall that held them in place previously.

Danny was just glad to see the Kit-cat clock that he had gotten Clockwork from his grandparents yard sale was still safe and sound, aside from a bit of scratches on its side. He still remembered the day he gave it to Clockwork, expecting the serious ghost to simply thank him as he always did when Danny gave him a joke clock. Unlike with the others the time ghost was visibly excited about that clock, saying he was always fond of cats when he was alive.

Although that was the only time that Clockwork had ever mentioned his life before death, it was still a defining moment in their friendship. While there was still a lot of work to be done in their friendship Danny felt comfortable knowing that he’d still have friends after his own death when his human body would give in to the ghost side and he’d be stuck in the ghost zone like so many others. 

The other person Danny knew he would have was Vlad.

While their friendship started in a rough place, possibly the roughest place a friendship could start out in, it had blossomed into something the halfa cherished just as much as he did with Tucker or Sam. He and Vlad had made a truce years prior after they had to work together to stop an elemental ghost that had kicked both their asses and destroyed half of Amityville. 

Danny had made a speech about not giving up on protecting his family, Vlad had made a speech about no longer letting himself be alone, and after they had rocked that battle the two of them had become inseparable. Danny had been there for Vlad to make sure the man wasn’t by himself and Vlad stopped trying to get Danny’s mom to fall in love with him. 

Vlad had done so much for Danny in those few years after their truce, like teach the younger halfa math and how to cook. Danny burnt his toast once in front of Vlad and the man had taken a whole day off from his mayoral duties and fiendish plots to teach Danny how to make enough dishes that he’d never starve.

_“This may sound cheesy coming from a ghost, little badger, but ingredients have no soul. It’s us, the one in charge of combining the ingredients, that must bring the spirit of the food. Once you do that it will taste wonderful, and then, well, then you could have anyone you’d want. After all, the way to a person's heart is through their stomach. Just ask your father.”_

The memory made Danny’s chest ache. It was that day that Danny began to fall for the older man, the much older man. Danny never said anything, and luckily enough neither did Vlad, but even then Danny’s heart raced at the memory of Vlad laughing when Danny crushed a tomato he was trying to cut. 

Where was Vlad, Danny wondered. The older ghost wouldn’t have let Danny out of his sight if he knew he was injured. Danny once got the flu and Vlad had nearly called in an army of doctors to make sure he was alright, if he knew Danny felt like he was going to crumble along with the walls of Clockworks tower with each step down the staircase Vlad would throw a fit worse than when the Packers lost the Superbowl. 

Vlad wasn’t next to him when he woke up so he had to have been in a different room in the tower, but even when Danny called out to him there was no answer. The sense of dread Danny felt when he first woke up returned, crawling up his spine until he shivered. Vlad was fine. He was probably just waiting for Danny in the main room with Clockwork trying to figure out how to defeat the newest threat they were facing. He’d probably hug Danny tight against his chest when he saw him and only let go when he’d remember that the younger man was injured. Danny would get to feel the warmth of his one sided crush’s body and think to himself how worth the pain was to feel something that made him so happy. 

Danny hurried down the stairs, ignoring the pain in his ankle or the stretching of the stitches. He wanted to see if Vlad was okay and there was only one way to do that, he needed to see him himself.

But when Danny got down to the main floor of the tower there was no Vlad. There was no Clockwork either. The main room was empty aside from the broken clocks that littered the floor and a single untouched wooden door with a note taped to it, and a medium sized wooden box sat in front.

The closer he got to the door the sicker he felt. Danny knew something was wrong, he knew something terrible happened and that reading that note was going to make it all come crashing down on him. He knew that Clockwork was giving him a job to do in order to fix whatever happened, but as he got closer and reached his hand out to grab the note the desire to ignore the door and note grew greater and greater. 

His fingers curled around the thick paper, and with a shaking hand he brought it close enough to read.

_Dear Daniel;  
I realize that you have many questions, and that I have fewer answers to give you. I wished that I could be there in person to explain it all to you but while bringing you to safety I was injured in a way I am struggling to recover from. My body is healing slowly, and I cannot see you until I am well enough again to move from my chamber. That being said, I offer you an apology that I know is not enough. _

_Those bumbling fools in white had built themselves a time machine and were determined to go back in time to when your parents had built the first proto type and destroy both that and the research that created it. Instead of going back in time, however, they destroyed the segment of time between the moment they had set their time machine to and the moment they turned it on. I could only save you from the destruction, and I apologize for that. There was nothing more I could do, Danny, and there are no words that I could write to show you how much guilt I feel for not being able to save them, for not being able to save him._

_I wanted to be able to save everyone you care for, but I was helpless as time started to unravel. It was a miracle in itself that I was able to save you, and while I did so in order to save someone I view as a friend I must confess that I need your help now more than ever._

_While I know you need time to process what has happened, and what is about to happen, I need you to go through the door and attend the University of Wisconsin with your parents and Vlad Masters in order to ensure that the proto portal is built._

_I realize this must be a shocking development for you, as I am sure you recall how important it is to not change things in the past, but Danny I’m afraid to tell you that there is no longer a future. There is only a past and a present until enough of the future is built that I can begin to see it again. I need your help for that._

_I had assistance in compiling a few items you will need for your new life, including your ID and enough money to get you by for a few years in a bank account I had set up for you. There are clothes I hope suit your personal taste, and a few items to prove that you are from the 80’s. I even had them procure a motorcycle for you, as I recall you mentioning how much you love riding yours._

_Once I have healed enough I will come visit you to go over what needs to be done, but I have grown weak again just by writing this letter. Once you pass through that door you will have one week until school starts, and I hope that is enough. It is all I was able to give you._

_Danny, I truly am sorry. If there was a way that I could fix this all for you I would, even if it meant my own destruction. I know how much your family and Vlad meant to you and I wish there was a way I could do something, but there isn’t. I can only offer you a new life and pray that you will find happiness in this time as well._

_Good luck, Daniel, and I shall see you soon.  
Signed; Your friend, CW _

Danny wasn’t sure when he had started to cry, but by the end of the letter there were tears falling onto the page. His family was gone. Vlad was gone. Sam, Tucker, Jazz, everyone, they were all gone. He was the only one left aside from Clockwork who was out of commission and there was nothing he could do but ensure that it didn’t happen again. 

Clockwork expected him to attend a school he didn’t know, with the younger version of his parents and try to start again? Was there any starting again when he couldn’t even remember the end of his life? If Clockwork couldn’t do anything, there was no way Danny could and the thought was enough to make Danny’s breath hitch in a choked back sob.

He crumpled the note in his hands, and threw it as hard as he could at the door only for it to bounce back and fall at his feet. What could he do? Even as he asked the question to himself he knew. He was going to go through that door into what he assumed was his new dorm room and cry, and after that he was going to find his parents and Vlad in their college days and do exactly what Clockwork asked. 

He had a week before school started, so maybe he wouldn’t go out and find them right away. He could allow himself to mourn for as long as he needed before he was forced to see the younger faces of his family and Vlad, as long as he didn’t need longer than a week. 

Who was he kidding, Danny Fenton never had the time he needed to do anything. 

Danny opened the door and was immediately hit with the smell of smelly socks and sweat. This was definitely a boys dorm.


	2. Is it gay to have someone change your bandages?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Danny gets his bearings, and realizes he needs to get his bandages changed. Unfortunately he can't reach them, luckily Vlad and Jack are walking by right as Danny goes out to ask for help.

When Clockwork wrote that he compiled a few things Danny would need, Danny never expected to walk into a private dorm room already decorated with its own mini fridge. He had expected a shared room with Jack and Vlad, only because Clockwork wanted him to work closely with the two, but seeing the room that only had one bed took a lot of tension off of his shoulders. This way he’d be able to slip out without anyone keeping an eye on him, or wondering where he disappears to at night. It was a struggle to hide when he lived at home with his older sister who knew what he was doing, he couldn’t imagine how terrible it would be with someone who had no idea he was dead.

Thanks to the lack of roommates taking up half the space, Danny had more room than he actually needed. He wasn’t complaining by any means, but it was more than he had been hoping for when it came to a dorm in his own time. 

The room had its own closet that was filled to the brim with different styles of clothing, from dress clothes to regular wear, to clothes that made Danny wonder if Clockwork thought he was some kind of punk. Danny brushed his fingers against a worn leather jacket, turning it on it’s hanger to see a familiar symbol on it’s back. The white D contrasted against the pure black of the leather, looking opposite to his ghost form where the D stood on his chest. It was custom tailored, and he wondered when Clockwork had gotten his measurements. 

The entire room was tailored to Danny’s likes while still maintaining the 80’s aesthetic, which only made the homesickness in his chest grow. While Danny thought he and Clockwork were friends, he didn’t think that the time ghost had listened to him when he had told him about his interests. He didn’t think that Clockwork would remember how Danny loved classic rock and would put up his favourite bands posters. Danny was surprised to see that Clockwork had recalled that Danny drove a motorcycle, which keys were neatly set on the desk in the corner of the room, but also remembered that Danny’s favourite colour was green and made sure to put more than enough of the ghostly colour in the wardrobe and the decorations. Even the bed was green.

The green flannel sheets that were neatly tucked under his mattress were just the thing he needed while living in Wisconsin, and being able to see that Clockwork had listened to him over all those years brought back a fresh new batch of tears. 

When he had first read that letter he felt alone and helpless, but seeing how much Clockwork cared to make sure Danny had things he liked made him realize he wasn’t alone. He was helpless, but he wasn’t by himself. He still had one friend. Danny would never be alone if the time ghost had anything to say about it, and if Danny had one person in his corner he could continue on working towards gaining others. 

Perhaps he’d be able to gain friends that weren’t ghosts, but people he could trust. It might take a week, or even years for Danny to heal from the emotional wounds thrust upon him but he could do that. Clockwork was trusting him to do that. After all, healing doesn’t mean forgetting and the halfa had no plans on forgetting. 

Danny searched through his room for an hour in order to get a good idea of where everything was, and once he did Danny sat down at the heavy mahogany desk that sat on the side of the room where another bed would usually be. 

The desk was decorated with important looking textbooks that Danny was sure he’d need, and a small white Kit-cat clock that stood proud on it’s stand. _Clockwork must really love that cat,_ Danny thought with a smile. 

His new desk was tidy, but he doubted it would stay that way for long for long. The need to look through the box Clockwork provided was too great for him to ignore any longer.

Danny looked at the box, not noticing anything remarkable about its design, and opened it. The smooth lacquered wood felt cool in his hands as he lifted the lid to reveal exactly what Clockwork promised him. There was all the photo ID Danny would need, including a passport, and his drivers licence. The box held his wallet that matched the leather jacket in his closet, and inside safely tucked into a pocket his his new bank information. 

Danny had to reread the page. While it didn’t contain the amount that was in the bank account it did say the name that the account was under, and it was not Danny Fenton.

Daniel James Clocks. 

The name stared back up at him as he read it again and again. That wasn’t his name. The first two names were correct, but the last name was all wrong. He was Danny _Fenton_. 

Danny knew that having the same last name as Jack was going to be suspicious, but it was going to be difficult to get used to a surname he had never seen before. He knew that he needed to use it, Clockwork wasn’t likely to change something that didn’t need to be changed, but it just added insult to injury. 

The new name meant leaving behind his old one, and acting like it never existed. It meant giving up the family that was taken away from and he wasn’t sure he was ready to accept it yet. He knew he wasn’t ready for it, but did he have much of a choice? 

Danny continued to look through the box, trying to ignore anything with the last name Clocks as best as he could. Even his birth certificate had it on there, but at least it kept his birthday the same. There were a few more items, like the location of his new motorcycle, and his time table for the quarter. He was set for school, there really was everything he needed like Clockwork said. He just wasn’t sure how much he wanted it. 

Finally, at the bottom of the box, was a newspaper. The date at the top of the page was from a month prior. On the front page there was an article about a plane crash, as as he read it he began to shake, it detailed how the Clock family was going up North with a few friends when their plane crashed, leaving one survivor. The youngest son. Danny tried to take deep breaths to help calm himself down from the sudden cold sweat that came over him, but even with all his practice it was difficult. 

Danny recognized the pictures of his family, although their clothes were altered their faces were burned into his mind. His mother, father, Jazz, Tucker, Sam, and finally Vlad’s smiling face looked up at him from the black and white page. Frozen in time like nothing bad had ever happened to them. It was a photo they had taken on Danny’s 19th birthday, and his family surrounded him. It was a happy occasion, and not a photo he wanted to be plastered next to a photo of a plane crash that supposedly killed everyone but him. 

He dropped the newspaper on the ground, casting it away from his face so he no longer had to look at it. He didn’t care to pick it up as he cursed the Guys in White once more. They had taken everything from him, including the right to revenge. They had killed themselves in their accident, along with everyone else Danny cared for. He had enough anger to burn the world down twice over and no one to direct it at. He felt so many emotions it made him sick and there was nothing he could do about it.

Danny leaned back in his chair and looked at the ceiling, which was decorated with glow in the dark stars. It was just like his room back home and a much needed distraction from the angry thoughts running through his mind. He gazed at the stars until the sunlight outside dimmed and the stars began to softly glow. 

There was a time when Danny's mom brought him to the observatory, and Danny was so taken by the stars that the woman spoiled him with a dozen packages of the little plastic stars. He and his mother stuck them up all over his room and walls with the help of his dad, Jazz, and the guidance of a star map for accuracy. It was one of Danny’s favourite memories that he cherished close to his heart. He had stuck stars onto his family's faces with childlike glee, and although his older sister complained about it, it was a happy moment for them all. 

Danny felt homesick as he looked up at the stars, but the memory eased some of the pain he felt. It was a bittersweet pain, but sweet nonetheless. He closed his eyes as he played the memory over and over again in his mind, letting the tears that formed in the corner of his eyes drop. 

Danny’s dad had lifted both him and Jazz on his shoulders to help them get to the ceiling, and only jokingly threatened to drop them once. Jazz was still young enough that she didn’t go over the ramifications of what the threat of dropping them would do to them, and Danny was thankful for that. It was a light and breezy memory that reminded him how much he loved his family. 

He had nearly fallen asleep in his chair when the growling of his stomach brought him back to reality. Since he had no idea how long he was unconscious in Clockworks tower, he had no idea how long ago it was since he had last eaten. He assumed it had been at least a day or two from the healing of his wounds, but he had no reference to what they had looked like before his ghostly powers had gotten to them. They could have taken up his entire body for all that he knew.

Danny stood, his ribs protesting the very movement, and looked at himself in the body mirror at the end of his bed. He figured he needed to change out of the blood crusted clothes if he wanted to fit in with the 80’s, and he was sure that looking like he just crawled out of a terrible car accident wasn’t going to let him do that.

He doubted his clothes were salvageable, even if they did have memories attached to them. Once off they got tossed into the garbage, and Danny got a full look at his injuries. 

“I look like shit.” Danny whispered, touching the still purple bruises on his face and stomach. There was bloody gauze wrapped around his torso, and although he tried he couldn’t get them off without his body being wrecked with pain. “I look like shit that got the shit kicked out of it.”

Danny knew he couldn’t fix himself up on his own, but the other option was to get help and he didn’t know a single person in the building. He didn’t even know what building he was in. He tried one last time to reach the bandage clips that were secured on his back, and after he failed he decided he was just going to have to go out and find someone to help him and hope that they didn’t ask too many questions.

The halfa cursed as he tucked the box with all his ID away in the closet and grabbed the medical kit that Clockwork had graciously left him, before gently throwing on a loose shirt and a fresh pair of boxers that was tucked into one of the drawers of his dresser. As soon as he opened the door of his room to the hallway he wished he had never left Clockworks tower. 

Standing before him with a set of horrified faces was Jack Fenton and Vlad Masters. Danny had forgotten how different his father looked when he was younger, without the salt and pepper hair and safe layer of chunk that came with a slower metabolism. Jack was pure muscle back in his college days and Danny got to see it up close and personal. 

Vlad Masters was another matter. Despite his long snowy hair being replaced with equally long back hair, Vlad looked eerily similar. Danny was aware that Vlad took good care of his body, but seeing his unrequited crush standing before him looking almost the same as ever made Danny’s heart race just like it did any other time he saw the other halfa.

Although this time Vlad wasn’t a halfa. He was just a human with a desire to find ghosts, and in love with Jack’s girlfriend. This wasn’t his Vlad, and he needed to get that through his head.   
It was the same with Jack and Maddie, he realized. They didn’t share the same memories or defining moments as his parents did because those moments and memories hadn’t happened yet. If Danny thought about it like that, then they weren’t his family. They were just people who looked like his family with the same names. 

He could do this.

Danny snapped back to reality and looked at the two. Their eyes were trained on Danny’s face before slowly moving down to the red stains that were seeping through his shirt, and further down to the stitches and burns on his legs. 

Even if he was going to tell himself that this wasn’t his Vlad, or Jack, he didn’t want to look like some sort of beaten up punk in front of an attractive man that just so happened to also be named Vlad Masters. 

“I, uh,” Danny started, equally stunned as the two men before him. “I need some help.”

“I’d say you need a hospital, but it looks like you already went and they discharged you too soon.” Vlad stated, those familiar blue eyes finally connecting with Danny’s. He had to mentally slap himself to keep himself from staring. “What happened?”

“Who cares what happened, V-Man, this guy needs our help!” Jack’s voice was booming, and Danny had no idea how he hadn’t heard it through the door. “Do you need me to call an ambulance for you?”

Danny shook his head. Dizziness hit him strong, making him grab onto the doorway. “No, I don’t need an ambulance. I just need help rewrapping my bandages.”

The two men looked at each other before nodding. The larger man gulped, but pushed forward with a familiar determined look set on his face. Jack Fenton always helped people in need, and Danny was grateful for that as he took the med kit from the halfa’s free hand and helped him back into his room towards his chair so he could sit down. 

Vlad seemed to know what he was doing better than Jack, and Danny was thankful for it. He immediately grabbed the scissors to cut away the old gauze and dispose of it, getting ready to examine and clear the wounds. He was making quick work of helping Danny while Jack managed to look quezier than the injured man at the mere sight of the circular stitching on his back. 

Once Vlad had finished disinfecting Danny’s shoulders and back, meticulously going over it all while Jack watched, he moved towards Danny’s front. 

Was this divine punishment for something, Danny wondered as the dark haired man knelt in front of him to start cleaning the wounds on his legs with some rubbing alcohol and cotton swabs. Was this Clockworks idea of a meet cute? Did Danny want this to be a meet cute? If the time ghost could remember how Danny loved the glow in the dark stars on his ceiling then he had no doubt that Clockwork was more than aware of Danny’s crush on the older halfa, and this time that very older halfa Danny was in love with was no longer that much older than him. 

Vlad looked up, his brows furrowed at Danny’s dazed expression. “Are you listening to me?”

“What?” Danny blinked, confused. Had Vlad been talking? “Sorry, I didn’t catch that.”

“I asked if the rubbing alcohol hurt since you’re crying, but I guess not if you weren’t paying attention.” Vlad sighed, pushing himself from the ground to stand up and crack his neck. He looked at Danny, analyzing his injuries. “That must have been a terrible car accident.”

Danny gave a weak smile, recalling the fake newspaper in the box that Danny was supposed to be using as his backstory. He still hated it, but it was a convenient excuse. “Plane crash, actually.” 

“Wait, are you Daniel Clocks?” Jack’s voice was like a knife to Danny’s heart. "I thought you looked familiar!"

_No, I’m Danny Fenton,_ he thought. “Yeah. Do I know you? Sorry, I’m having a hard time recognizing people still.”

“No, no, we’ve never met but I read about what happened in the news.” Jack walked into Danny’s view, his smiling face pitying. Clockwork must have made sure to put the fake news report in as many newspapers as possible, but if he was strong enough to orchestrate that then why wasn’t he strong enough to see Danny? “Did you just get out of the hospital?”

“Jack,” Vlad sighed, but was immediately ignored.

“It’s fine, I just got out earlier today.” Danny confessed. He wasn’t sure what he could say. How could he? He’d be telling his own father, who was not his father at the same time, of his fake death that he himself was having a hard time accepting. It was a confusing mess that Danny didn’t want to deal with. “It’s still fresh, you know? I swear I was eating dinner with them earlier today, I don’t even remember the crash.”

As soon as the word food left Danny’s lips his stomach decided to let itself be known. Despite how Jack began laughing, Danny’s cheeks grew hot. He wished that his chair would open up and swallow him whole like the scene from the first Ghostbusters, but when that didn’t happen he just joined in with Jack in laughing. “Sorry, I was going to find some food when I saw that my bandages were bleeding through.”

“You don’t need to apologize for something like that.” Vlad’s voice was clear cut, no honeywords to sooth his sharpness. It reminded Danny of the first time he had gone to Vlad for help after the truce and the older man had scolded him for saying he was an inconvenience. Danny was going to have to work hard to keep this Vlad out of the other Vlad’s shadow. “Jack likes to remind everyone that asking for help isn’t something you should be ashamed of.”

“Look at that, you listen to me sometimes, V.” Jack wiped away a fake tear, the scene being ruined by his boisterous laughter. “I’m so proud of you.”

The sound was contagious, and soon even Vlad was chucking and Danny had a smile on his face. It was easy to fall into the moment with these two, and it made the knowledge of Jack and Vlad’s fallout later down the line even worse. Danny was going to stop it, he vowed. He was going to make sure that Vlad never gets hurt in the accident, and if he can’t do that then he will make sure that the two of them won’t have the same life altering fallout the same way Danny had witnessed before. He was going to protect the two, even if it killed him. Again. 

The despair Danny had felt earlier was actively fought off with his fathers presence, and for the time being that was enough for Danny. It was enough just to be able to enjoy the moment.

“So, where were you going to be looking for food?” Vlad finished cleaning Danny’s wounds and moved on to rewrapping them so the stitches didn’t get caught on anything. The man’s touch was delicate when it needed to be, but firm was required. Even if he wasn’t the same Vlad as the one Danny fell in love with, there were still similar parts of him that Danny liked. If he wasn’t careful he’d fall in love with this Vlad as well.

“I was planning on driving around in hopes of finding a restaurant.” Danny said. He didn’t have much of a plan, but he did have a bike he could get around on and until he could check out his ghost form it was the only thing like flying he could feel. 

Vlad stopped wrapping Danny up, and silence creeped into the room. Danny looked at him, confused. “What?” Had he said something wrong? Had he transformed himself on accident?

“You shouldn’t be driving anywhere.” Jack scratched the back of his head, unsure if he should be trying to tell Danny what to do. It almost made Danny laugh, he almost wished his dad was like that when telling him to clean up his room. “You seem really out of it, man.”

He was relieved that was it. Danny had forgotten about his head injury, even if it was just for a few moments. The two of them were right, he really shouldn’t be driving in his condition. 

“I agree with Jack, you look like you’re going to fall over and die if a stiff wind gets you. I’d avoid driving for at least another month.” Vlad finished fastening Danny’s torso bandages and lightly patted his shoulder. “We can bring something back with us later when we come back.”

“Why don’t you come with us, Danny? Can I call you Danny?” Jack picked Danny up by his forearms like he weighed nothing, and softly apologized when Danny flinched at the pain. “We’re going over to our friends room at the next dorm over, you haven’t met anyone here yet have you? It’ll be good for you to make friends!”

“Jack, I really don’t think,” Vlad tried, but Jack was as loud as ever.

“Nonsense, Vladdy! I’m sure Danny is a cool dude!” Jack turned to Danny with a wide grin. “Right? You’re not one of those people who hate people different than you, I assume?”

It took a few moments to realize what Jack was talking about.

When Danny’s father sat down to have the talk with him when he was a teenager, he mentioned how he had a few friends in college who were interested in the same gender. Jack said if he loved his friends back in the 80’s when things were still hush hush he would love his son no matter what preference he had in partners, if he decided to have one at all. 

At least, that was what Danny assumed Jack was talking about. There was only one way to discreetly ask, but even without a head injury Danny didn’t often use old phrases to ask if someone was gay. Usually all he had to do was make his wrist limp and say ‘y’know’. If Jack didn’t understand it twenty something years in the future than he doubted he’d get it now.

Danny racked his brain for the right way to ask, trying to remember the exact phrase his father used to talk about his college friends.

“Are you asking me if I’m okay with the friends of Dorothy?” Danny questioned, hoping he was using the right phrase. 

Jack nodded.

Danny chuckled. “You’re friends are safe with me, my parents were open minded and made sure that I wouldn’t judge people for that sort of thing. I judge people by their actions, not who they romance.”

“See, Vlad! Danny’s a good dude!” Jack turned to face his friend who only looked at Danny with skepticism. “Now let’s go, I’m starving!”


	3. What feels like dying

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This one is long, and I'm sorry for that. I cut three pages out originally to keep it smaller and than I accidentally edited in another six.

Vlad, Jack, and Danny left their dormitory, a well put together dorm named the Westley building which according to the other two, had a long history of being haunted. While the two had no actual proof there were ghosts, Jack swore by it while Vlad seemed to disagree with the theory. No proof meant it wasn’t there, and it wasn’t like they hadn’t checked out the building with as many EVP’s as they got their hands on. 

It wasn’t surprising that either of them chose the haunted building knowing their love of the mysterious and unknown. It was their mutual love for the paranormal that made their roommate situation work despite their opposite natures. 

Vlad confessed it was thanks to Jack that he had met his other friends, the same ones that they were going to be visiting at the next building over. 

The next dorm was called The Carol Holmes building, after the original school's owner's wife. While the Westley building was a boys dorm, the Carol Holmes building was entirely girls and according to Jack that was where his other best friend lived. 

“Her name’s Maddie, and she’s brilliant!” Jack said, louder than necessary as they walked down the short path between buildings. “You should see her grades, I’ve never seen anyone half as clever as her!”

Vlad cleared his throat.

“Not including V-man here, of course.” Jack corrected, making the corners of Vlad’s mouth turn into a fond smile. “He’s also brilliant, and I know how lucky I am to have them both helping me with my studies.”

“At least you admit it.” Vlad hummed.

Jack was many things; hemophobic, which explained why he looked so ill when he saw Danny’s injuries, he was a member of the wrestling team and a gold medalist, and the bigger man was an activist for LGBT rights. In Danny’s mind he rivaled Sam with how many protests he had claimed to go to in the past year with his one buddie Dan.

Danny had been expecting the same forgetful man that his father was when interacting with Jack, but he wasn’t expecting Jack Fenton was how over the top he loved his friends. Danny’s dad rarely mentioned anything about his school days aside from Vlad, but now that he saw how proud Jack was of all his friends it made more sense how much he clung to Vlad in Danny’s time. Jack would forgive anything Vlad did as long as he remained his V-man. 

Jack boasted about more than just Vlad and Maddie, however. There were five other ghost hunters in their little group that Danny had never heard of before. That didn’t mean Danny was going to remain ignorant about his dad’s friends, not that he had a choice with how enthusiastically Jack talked about them all.

The halfa figured that he’d know more than enough about the people he was about to meet in order to feel comfortable around them by the time Jack finished telling Danny about their great accomplishments. 

The man had told Danny tales about Anne and Dan, the twins who despite their opposite styles were closer than anyone else he had met. Their differences were their superpower, as Jack said, saying if one of them couldn’t do something than the other more than made up for it. 

Where one was out there and made friends easily, the other was quiet and only spoke out in protests or when surrounded by his friends. Where Anne had a hard time studying, Dan was a straight A student who helped tutor his sister. 

They were the type of opposites that managed to be two peas in a pod that made one single superhuman who Jack was sure could do anything they put their collective minds to. 

Those two lived in an apartment on the edge of campus together instead of being separated by the gendered dorms. According to Jack they had separation anxiety when it came to their sibling. 

Then there was Adam and Ricky who shared a room on the opposite end of the floor that Danny lived on. Those two were in a band together called Xpider, and English majors. It took everything in Danny not to laugh when Jack specifically said “it’s spider with an x.” Danny could only imagine what kind of band they were. 

Those two were friendly and apparently competitive with each other, and once Danny got there he’d understand why. That is, if they were already there. Vlad commented on how those two were always late. 

Then there was Hannah who was going to school for theater production. She was the one who shared a room with the not so mysterious Maddie. According to Jack the two girls met during orientation and had been connected at the hip ever since. 

Jack warned Danny to avoid asking them about their roommates prior, apparently that was a forbidden subject that no one wanted to revisit. Danny could only imagine what living with a bad roommate was like, the worst he had was once during camp he had to share a room with Dash.

Now Jack was talking about Maddie, and it was almost as if Danny didn’t know who she was. The woman he was speaking about sounded completely different from the mother she would eventually grow into. His mother, much like his father, rarely talked about his college accomplishments. Now Danny was learning that she was on the track team and worked as a TA in the physics department. She was a straight A student, and founded the Parapsychology Research Club, and on top of all that she even taught self defence to girls on campus as a volunteer every other weekend. 

Maddie was more impressive than Danny thought, and it was no wonder that the two men beside him were in love with her.

Except that Vlad didn’t seem to be in love with Maddie in the same way that his Vlad had been.

This Vlad didn’t obsess over her accomplishments the same way that Jack did. He spoke about her with pride, but without the rose coloured glasses that Jack had. Which made Danny ask himself, when did Vlad fall in love with Maddie?

“And then, get this, she just wrote the answer on the board. Like it was nothing. She’s so smart!” Jack went on, but it was Vlad’s soft chuckle that brought Danny out of his thoughts. 

“Don’t be intimidated by her, Danny, Maddie isn’t any more frightening than a house cat. She’s quite friendly, and as long as you don’t bad mouth our collective research of ghosts, she is wonderful to be around.” Vlad said as they got to the door of the building. Jack opened it, swinging it back and nearly hitting Danny in the face as he did so. “It’s my clumsy roommate you need to be wary of. He tends to live in the moment a tad too much.”

“Sorry D,” Jack frowned, realizing what he had just done. 

Danny waved him off. “It’s fine, man. I’ve been hit by worse than a door before.”

_Like an ecto-gun that you’ll eventually build._ He thought.

“Like the ground?” Jack asked innocently. 

Danny snorted as Vlad sputtered, desperately trying to explain to Jack how inappropriate that was. Instead of getting upset like Vlad assumed Danny would be, he just laughed. He hated the pitying looks that Jack had given him before, and the worried glances that Vlad kept throwing at him. Even though it wasn’t an actual joke Danny found it hilarious. This was better than pity.

“Look, the ground and I have had some disagreements in the past, but we can all safely assume I will be staying on it’s good side from now on.” Danny said, trying to seem semi serious. “You guys don’t need to walk on eggshells around me. It’s alright. Physically I’ve been through worse. It’s okay.”

The two men stared at him in horror, mirroring the same look that they had seen him in his boxers earlier. Had he said something wrong? Danny supposed it did sound insensitive of him to say that, but physically he had been through worse. Emotionally, however, only once. He had long since made sure Dan wasn’t going to happen though, and he wasn’t going to make that mistake again. 

“How?” Vlad mouthed, no words coming out as he questioned Danny.

“What’s worse than a plane crash?” Jack asked.

Danny weighed his options. He could tell them some lie about electrocution, or he could use the truth to find out how far they were on their own ghost portal. He chose the latter. “My parents were quietly researching ghosts, and built a lab in our basement.” Danny began, looking up at the night sky above him in order to avoid looking at the two. He was going to stick to the truth as much as he could to avoid slip ups, but the knowledge that he couldn’t tell them the whole truth hurt him just as much as not being able to tell his parents when he was younger. He hated that fear that he had grown up with, not knowing if they would have dissected him or not. “When I was fourteen I went down to check things out, and I found out that their latest experiment was a portal into what they called the Ghost Zone, and it didn’t work. While my parents went over their notes in the kitchen I went to check it out with my friends. I didn’t see any harm in looking at something that didn’t work so I ventured in while my friends waited outside of it, and when I was inside the dead portal I saw a switch like the one my parents had on the outside of the portal, and like a dumbass I flipped it on.” 

Danny took a breath before continuing. It felt good to get it out. “I didn’t know my parents had left the other switch on, assuming that they were practicing lab safety like they had taught my sister and I from the time we could walk, so when I flipped the switch on the inside I was electrocuted. Luckily my friends were there to shut everything down and get me to a hospital, but I died that day. Fortunately they were able to bring me back, but it was the single most painful thing I have ever experienced. ”

Danny walked through the door Jack was holding open, expecting the two to follow in behind him but instead they just stood there in shock.

“Your parents were parapsychologists?” Vlad’s eyes were like scalding embers on Danny’s skin, the heat of them alone was enough to make Danny cringe. It was close to how his Vlad had looked at him when he had told him back in his mansion in Wisconsin. That Vlad had dragged Danny there for answers, and getting it off his chest at that time felt just as good as it did just then. “And they made a portal?”

“To the Ghost Zone?” Jack continued, just as flabbergasted as Vlad. “That explains why you weren’t shocked to hear that we’re ghost hunters!”

“I grew up on ghosts, so it’ll take a bit more than that to freak me out.” Danny shifted his weight onto his other leg as the other began to throb. “Now if you have stories on zombies, that might get a rise out of me.”

“They built a portal?” Vlad repeated himself, still unsure if he believed Danny’s words. He paid no attention to Danny’s joke, and the halfa couldn’t blame him. It was a bad one. He didn’t think any of the Ghost group believed in that stuff. 

“They destroyed it after what happened to me, but I kind of wish they hadn’t.” The halfa lied, and despite the bitter taste in his mouth it left he continued. “I really think it would have worked. Outside of making me into a ghost, it had the potential to do a lot of good in the world.”

“Like what?” Vlad pressed, walking through the door so he could stand face to face with Danny. 

Danny gulped. “Instead of having ghosts trapped on this plane of existence, we could have sent them to where they belong. Being here wouldn’t help them let go of their anger, but I think the ghost zone is different.”

“That’s a lot of hopeful thinking.” Vlad raised a brow, an expression Danny was all too used to from the man’s older self.

“I am interested in science in order to help people, whether they’re dead or not.” Danny leaned closer to Vlad and winked, actively destroying the man's serious aura as he sputtered something. “Helping them means helping this world, and I’ve always tried to be the hero type.”

“As long as you don’t throw yourself in front of a bus for someone, I don’t see how that is a bad thing.” Vlad swallowed, unsure how to handle Danny getting into his personal space. “I just think there is more to getting the ghosts to pass on than just sending them away to another place.”

“Well,” Danny started, getting lost in the moment where Vlad stood in front of him looking at him like he was an equal. Vlad was daring him to argue with him, to join in a banter Danny was all too familiar with that he had longed for the second he found out he’d never get it again. 

Banter was their unique love language, but this time it was different. This time Danny could be brave, he could be confident and try. What was the worst that could happen? He could be rejected, sure, but he could recover from that. What he couldn’t recover from was never trying to begin with.

Vlad was close enough to Danny that he could smell the faint smell of sweat rolling off of him, a reminder that it was still summer vacation for a bit longer. That was plenty of time for Danny to make his moves, and if come school officially starting Danny would back off. 

Danny reached out and tucked a straw piece of Vlad’s long hair behind his ear, “is that your way of saying you're concerned for me?”

Vlad was frozen for only a second before he smirked, amusement lighting up his blue eyes like the stars in the sky above them. “How would you be able to save people if you died from blunt force trauma, Mr. Hero?”

“Good point,” Danny grinned. “Maybe when it comes to impending bus’s I’ll only save the most important people to me, care to join that list?”

“It might be a good idea to keep that list small, just to keep you around longer.” Vlad copied Danny’s previous move, but instead of fixing Danny’s hair the other man took the stray lock of hair in his fingers and admired it carefully. “I’m not the type to let people die for me.”

“We’re thinking about trying to build our own portal!” Jack announced before Danny could retort, actively shocking both of them out of their flirtatious moment. 

“You are?” Danny cleared his throat, embarrassed to have gotten so into their, their what? They were flirting, at least Danny thought so, but was it something or was Vlad just going along with Danny for fun? “I’d be happy to help you guys if you need it.”

Jack clapped his hands together, his excitement was palpable. “Mads is going to be thrilled to hear this!”

“I’d be thrilled to hear what?” A woman asked, coming around a corner to stand in front of the three men. 

Danny had to catch his breath at the sight of Maddie, who looked so much like a curly haired Jazz that he had almost thought his sister was standing there instead. If it weren’t for the outfit that screamed what decade they were in, it was Maddie’s unique colour eyes that made her stand out from Danny’s sister. 

“Who’s this?” Maddie walked up to their little group, her heels echoing through the hall with a force that made sure Danny knew who he was dealing with. Perhaps it was Danny’s knowledge of what the woman turned into that made him feel like she was studying him as she looked him over, or maybe that was just how Maddie had always been. 

Danny wasn’t sure whether to be frightened or amazed by her, but instead he pushed the very thought out of his mind and offered his hand. “I’m Danny.”

She looked at his hand confused before finally taking it. Her handshake was firm, leaving no room for him to pretend to be the tough one. “I’m Maddie Bemelmans, founder of Wisconsin-Madison Universities Parapsychology group.”

“That’s impressive.” Danny said, honestly impressed that she had managed to create the group that so many people were a part of.

“Because I’m a girl?” She frowned. 

“No, because not a lot of people view parapsychology as a real field deserving a part of the school budget.” Danny mirrored her expression. “Your gender has nothing to do with what you are capable of.”

That took her for surprise. He knew that sexism was still prominent in the 80’s, but he didn’t think it was bad enough that Maddie was the defensive one out of her, Jack, and Vlad. If anything Danny was sure that Vlad was the untrusting one he’d have to worry about. 

“Danny here knows about ghost portals!” Jack almost shouted, and Danny was positive that Jack only did so in order to get to the one topic he loved the most.

“Jack!” “Quiet!” Maddie and Vlad scolded their friend, looking around to make sure no one else heard. 

“Sorry, it’s exciting! Think about it, he has hands-on experience with portals!” Jack could hardly contain himself as he attempted to whisper. “We could use his help.”

Maddie grabbed her two friends arms and pulled them away from Danny into an impromptu meeting. “You think he can help with the portal?”

“Yeah he could, but if Jack recalled what Danny had just told us, it nearly killed him! If he’s telling the truth about the portals, then you really think he’d want two near death experiences in a year? If it doesn’t actually kill him this time.” Vlad growled. “Even if I did believe him I’d be hesitant to let a concussed man help us in our research.” 

“You think he’d lie about it?” Jack looked like a kicked puppy with the way his head drooped down. 

“Did you tell him about the portal idea first? Maybe he’s just crazy, I mean just look at him. He’s definitely been hit a few times, maybe it knocked something loose.” Maddie whispered as the three ghost researchers huddled together.

Danny crossed his arms over his chest. He didn’t need his ghost powers in order to hear them only three feet away. In fact, if it wasn’t so funny he’d be offended.

“He brought portals up on his own when he was telling us about the accidents he’s been in, apparently his parents built one and it ended up killing him. They managed to bring him back in a hospital.” Vlad told her. “And we don’t have that kind of equipment in the lab.”

Technically he died and came back to life at the same time within the portal, but they didn’t need to know that. Aside from turning into a ghost, the worst symptom was how he had vomited ectoplasm for a week afterwards. It had stained half his wardrobe, and he had to beg his sister to take him out shopping. His parents had been too busy testing their new working portal to realize what was going on with him, but he hadn’t given them any hints that he wasn’t feeling well to start. 

The memory of the ecto-bile left a bad taste in his mouth. 

“He looks like he’s dead already, are you sure he didn’t turn into a zombie during that whole thing?” Maddie questioned, taking a glance at Danny. Vlad’s eyes followed hers to Danny, but instead of the scrutiny that Maddie had, Vlad’s eyes were more concerned.

“I’m pretty sure I didn’t become a brain eater, no, and as for my appearance that happened earlier this month in an accident.” Danny had enough. He walked into their little circle next to Vlad, and out of instinct he placed his hand on his shoulder. Danny did it for a need to comfort the man and stop the concern that was radiating from him, but Vlad took it as Danny was getting dizzy again. 

“We should bring him inside.” Vlad stated, leaving no room for argument. 

The other two nodded and led him to a room in the middle of the hall, and opened it up to show a regular dorm room with two beds and a plethora of pillows tossed in between them for people to sit on. The walls were far from plain with play posters hanging on every spare piece of wall, with a few repeats of the Phantom of the Opera. He guessed it was Hannah’s doing, but didn’t judge the decorations. It made the room more comfortable compared to the plain white walls he knew were hidden behind the glossy paper. 

Once Danny walked in he didn’t hesitate to fall onto one of the pillows, but Vlad was just a few seconds faster and caught him. 

“What are you doing?” Vlad was frantically checking over Danny again, “you’re going to kill yourself doing things like that.”

Danny looked up at him and moved to ruffle Vlad’s hair. “Can’t you tell? I’m falling for you.” 

Vlad tripped over his words, first telling Danny there was no way he was falling for him, and then saying that he was, but literally, until the only thing that came out of his mouth was “fall for me more carefully.”

Danny grinned. Vlad was affected by him, and what he said. He had a chance after all, and he had never been more grateful that Clockwork had orchestrated the strangest meet cute possible for the two of them. “Are you that worried about me?”

“I swear, if I don’t keep you next to me you’ll do something stupid and get yourself killed.” Vlad grumbled, sitting down on one of the pillows on the floor. 

Danny followed suit, except instead of just sitting he chose to lay his head on Vlad’s lap. “Guess I’ll have to stick to you then.”

Vlad froze, as still as a statue before gently putting his hand on Danny’s forehead and brushing his hair away from his eyes. “Just don’t get used to it, Clocks.”

“But I could,” Danny gave a cheeky grin at the other man, who just rolled his eyes in response. 

“Who’s bringing food today?” Vlad asked the redhead who had sat on her bed, with Jack next to her. It was nice seeing them together, if Jack was happy before he was euphoric now. It was clear how he felt about Maddie, and Danny wasn’t foolish enough not to see the loving gaze that Maddie had when looking at the larger man. Even if they were trying to be discreet Danny could see how much they loved each other. 

“Anne and Dan are on their way with pizzas, so we can get him to check your friend out then.” Maddie stated, as if it were an everyday thing. Perhaps it was. As long as Danny could recall his parents hated eating alone, he just didn’t think that it had started so young for them. 

Maddie grabbed a pen and paper pad from her bedside drawer, and pointed at Vlad with the pen. “You two seem close.”

“I’m afraid I don’t know what you mean.” Vlad grumbled, his brows pulled together as if he himself was confused at their closeness. “I’m just trying to make sure he doesn’t kill himself on accident after surviving another near death experience.”

“He’s seen me near naked and he called dibs immediately after.” Danny joked. Vlad flicked Danny’s ear as he said that, but it didn’t hurt. Vlad wasn’t offended, and if he wanted Danny to stop flirting he didn’t seem like the type to let Danny make him uncomfortable. Danny knew he didn’t have much of a chance, but he wanted one. Even if this wasn’t the Vlad he fell for to begin with. There was something there between them and he wasn’t going to let it slip by. “Then I talked about ghosts and he fell in love with me.”

“I most certainly did not!” Vlad almost shouted, his face growing red. “I’m not such a delinquent that I ogle a man while I’m fixing his bandages, and I certainly didn’t fall in love with you!”

Danny yawned, “what a shame.”

Jack sat on the bed next to Maddie and shook his head, as if he already had enough of the two’s obvious flirting. “Where’s Hannah?”

“She’s at practice, but she shouldn’t be much longer. That ended at eight.” Maddie said.

“Just because we’re friends with gay people doesn’t mean all of us are gay, Danny.” Vlad muttered.

“I’m happy if you are, and happy if you aren’t.” Danny lifted his hand to poke Vlad’s cheek. “But if you are interested in men, you’re exactly my type.”

“Someone who acts like a feral cat?” Maddie asked, turning to listen to their conversation out of curiosity. Her expression looked like that of Jazz when she was trying to psychoanalyze Danny.

“A packers fan?” Jack questioned.

“Someone clearly intelligent?” Vlad ignored the other two.

“Someone reliable, with a good heart.” Danny stated. 

The room was filled with silence, Danny’s cheesiness stunning everyone, including himself. “If you all are going to get quiet like that I’ll take it back and just say he’s hot.” Danny dropped his arm so it fell over his face, trying to hide his embarrassment. How could he say something like that? Maybe he was concussed. 

No, he was definitely concussed. There was no doubt about it. Maybe he could play it off as a brain injury and convince himself that he wasn’t already falling head over heels for someone he had already decided was not his Vlad. Danny could tell himself that all he liked, but he could still see the same features in his Vlad in this one. It just wasn’t fair to this Vlad for Danny to be all over him when he was still mourning the other halfa he had lost only a few hours ago. But maybe it was losing his chance with that very halfa that made him want it all the more and protect it, and now he was in another Vlad’s lap with those beautiful blue eyes gazing down at him like he was a fragile piece of art. 

It was those eyes that made Danny weak and say fuck it. He wanted to try. 

“Told ya Danny was a good man!” Jack used his foot to nudge Vlad who only swatted him in return. “He sees right through your cold exterior to the soft Wisconsin cheese inside!”

“He’s got brain damage!” Vlad exclaimed, making excuses for Danny’s flirtation again. “He has no idea what he’s saying! Didn’t you hear him? He thinks I’m reliable despite only knowing me for an hour!”

“You are reliable, Vlad.” Maddie frowned, grabbing a pillow to toss at her friend before deciding against it as she remembered Danny on his lap. “But more importantly, Danny, I think you have something to tell us?”

“My name’s Danny Clocks, I’m 19, and my type is long haired men with blue eyes who are interested in ghosts.”

“I meant about the portal.” Maddie sighed, pointedly ignoring the red growing on Vlad’s cheeks for his own sake. 

“Oh, right,” Danny knew what she was talking about, but he couldn’t resist one more line. “My parents built one in the basement in secret, not wanting to be found out by naysayers, and dismantled it once it killed me.”

“It killed you?” Maddie asked in disbelief. 

“My parents had forgotten to flip the inside switch before flipping the outside switch, and when I turned it on from the inside I got hit with everything that portal had.” Danny’s smile fell from his face as he spoke. “I never told them what really happened, just that the portal started to work but blasted me. They realized that their research wasn’t worth my life and dismantled it while I was still at the hospital.”

It was a lie. It was a lie Danny partially wished was true, that his parents had gotten rid of the portal that took away a majority of his adolescence. He had wished that they noticed something was up with him before they died, but he never gave them the chance. He was too afraid of being their experiment to trust them.

“What was death like?” Vlad leaned his head back against the other bed, as if asking the ceiling instead of Danny himself. Danny was thankful for that. It was the golden question, wasn’t it? What was there after life? Unfortunately Danny knew the answer. 

“It’s cold, at least for me it was. There was ice growing in my chest, and it consumed me while my body was being torn apart. The ice didn’t go away when I came back either, that stayed as a reminder of what happened. As for dying; it was like every cell in my body was electrocuted, and torn apart only to be smashed back together with only that burning ice holding it together.” Danny muttered, remembering the moment he died. “It hurt more than I can really describe, but for the moments I was truly dead it was cold. The cold didn’t bother me, exactly, not after the ice had settled. It was the loneliness that got me. The regret that I was leaving my family and friends alone, without any explanation as to what I was doing in there to begin with. I kept telling myself my parents would never forgive themselves or continue their work because of me, that my sister wouldn’t be able to cope without me there to keep her company when my parents were gone. It was all my fault that they’d be sad. Then there was the anger, the anger that my parents missed a very obvious step in their contraption and forgot to turn it off before they left like I thought they did. Anger that I was going to die because of their stupid mistake. I was mad that I never got to take revenge on my school bullies, and I wished at that time that I could freeze them like the ice was freezing me. I wanted to scream and yell and destroy everything, but even in that dark place all I could do was wail. No one could hear me because I was alone in what felt like the arctic tundra. I wanted to use it to get back at so many people, but I was trapped. At some point I had decided that my family needed protection, that I needed to be the one to do that so I had to go back. Then, all of a sudden I wasn’t trapped any longer. I was laying down with my friends worried faces over me asking if I was okay. I lied and said I was fine.” 

“I don’t actually blame my parents, honest, but when I died everything felt so intense that I couldn’t help it. I can see why when ghosts are stuck holding onto old grudges, because that is all they feel. They remember every wrong that they’ve ever experienced and they can’t think of anything else. I don’t think any of them want to, but it’s hard to pull away.” Danny took a deep breath and smiled, as if that action alone would stop the fresh dose of cold that overtook his heart. “Makes me think what my family is stuck feeling. What V, Victor felt.”

Danny wanted to laugh at his choice of fake names for the other halfa. He just needed a V name, but Victor was all too fitting for his classic literature loving crush. He was a mad scientist till the end and Frankenstien was one of the few books the man always had on hand. Dracula was always close at hand, however. It was inspiration for Vlad’s ghost form, and Danny couldn’t judge. The fangs did it for him so much that his own ghost form gained some. 

Since no one said anything Danny kept going. He forgot what it was like to have told someone what it was like to die and it was cathartic. It was hard to stop once that dam was opened, so instead he continued. 

“Victor went through the same thing I did, but before I was born. See, when he was in university with my parents they built a much smaller version of their portal, and when it short circuited it blasted out a ray that hit Victor. They gave up on their idea of a ghost zone until I was a teen, but the damage was done. Their friendship was ruined. Victor died, and when he came back he was filled with more rage than regret. I came back with the need to protect my family, and he came back wanting to make my parents pay. It took him well over twenty years to get over that anger.” Danny closed his eyes and remembered the first time he saw Vlad, and his pompous smile. He had wanted to make fun of the man, and he did, and at the time he hadn’t realized why he was so wary of the older man. He didn’t understand why he didn’t trust Vlad from the very moment he got near him, but time revealed that to him. Their cores were opposites and had reacted to each other, even if they hadn’t known about it then. “And after he did get over that revenge plan, the two of us became close. He was the only person I had told about what it felt like to die, because he knew exactly what I was talking about.”

“You don’t seem to have a good track record with portals, do you?” Maddie mused, her voice softer than it was previously. “Are we sure we should get his help with our project? I don’t want any rays shooting out of the portal.”

“He’ll be the one in charge of safety precautions.” Jack joked. “How did the first portal end up breaking? The one from when your parents were in school.”

_You poured your drink into it_ , Danny thought. “My dad got oil and cola mixed up and poured soda into it by accident.” 

“Sounds like a real blunderhead! No offence.” Jack leaned against Maddie to bump her gently with his elbow. “Who brings food into a laboratory?”

While Danny was glad to get that all off his chest, he was relieved for the subject to be turned to something else. He was able to talk about his pain, but only so much before he started to shiver from his core running rampant. 

He wanted to go out and fly, to let out some ice and put some energy into healing himself faster, but now that Vlad and Jack had seen his wounds he couldn’t. He could only heal so fast before they became suspicious. 

“I’d never mix cola and oil, the only thing they share is the colour!” Jack defended himself, as if he knew he was eventually going to mix the two up.

Danny hated how he laughed. He knew that Jack was the kind of blunderhead who would bring food into the lab. He’d done it on numerous occasions, leaving Danny to fight the Lunch Lady or a possessed ham. “My dad was smart, he was just clumsy and forgetful sometimes. I think he just got too into what he was working on and forgot everything else.”

“Sounds like someone else we know.” Vlad purposefully looked away from Jack, who pretended to be offended.

“V-Man, I will have you know that I remembered to eat today despite working on that new EVP!”

“That’s because you brought food into the lab.” It was unusual for Danny to hear Vlad talking about Jack without malice in his voice. Sure, the older halfa had stopped trying to kill Jack and was on better terms with him before he died but the bitterness was still there when they talked. Vlad had little patience for Danny’s dad's antics, but this Vlad was more than used to it. 

“If I didn’t I would have starved! Withered away to nothing but dust and bones, and then who’d room with you?” Jack wagged his finger at Vlad as if it would have any effect on him. “You’d be lonely, don’t lie to me.”

“If missing one meal would kill you then you better hope that pizza gets here fast.” Vlad retorted. 

“If he withers away we can just break down that wall between our rooms, and share a really big room together.” Danny lifted his arm off his face to grin at Vlad. “We’d be able to fit a couch or two in there too.”

Vlad tilted his head, pretending to humour the idea. “In that case, my bed could go where your desk is and we could have our desks facing each other in the opposite corner where Jack's bed currently is. That way we still have a private area for our studies.”

“Guys, I’m not dead yet.” Jack tried to butt in, but Danny and Vlad managed to continue on. 

“It’d be easier to sketch out ideas for ghost hunting equipment then, as long as you don’t mind looking over my calculations.” Danny knew math was one of Vlad’s favourite subjects, and the older halfa had tutored him for his last year of high school until he was personally satisfied that Danny could handle any math thrown at him for his exams. Danny just wanted to see the man's reaction. 

“You’re not bad at math are you?” Vlad looked almost disgusted. 

“Tutor me and find out.” Danny dared.

“First you want me to bandage you up, and then let you use my lap as a pillow, and now you want me to tutor you? Aren’t you asking for a bit much?” Vlad rolled his eyes, but there was no malice behind his words.

“Maybe I’m just trying to spend more time with you.” Danny hummed.

“He has good chemistry with Vlad, I’m kind of shocked.” Maddie whispered to Jack while Vlad was in the middle of telling Danny how important math was and how Danny needed to focus on that instead of trying to make friends. “Did something happen?”

Danny was torn between watching Vlad lecture him, and listening in on Jack and Maddie. On one hand, Vlad was handsome. He was enthusiastic about math, which was the only reason Danny brought it up. It was clear cut answers, and Vlad appreciated that. While the dark haired man was fond of English and it’s endless possibilities, math was the opposite of that. There was always on definitive answer and it made his life simpler. 

Just watching Vlad wave his hands around as he tried to explain that to Danny was nice, even if the man almost smacked his face a few times as he flailed around. It was endearing, and it was hard to even think about looking away from him. 

And on the other hand, Maddie and Jack were whispering to each other and he wanted to know what. Danny had always been a snoop, and dying after checking out the ghost portal didn’t rectify that. If anything it only made his paranoia go up. 

“Nothing happened, but just look at how Danny looks at Vlad.” Had Danny really been that obvious? “I think Vladdy just likes having someone not look at him like he’s crazy lately, someone that isn’t in our little circle I mean.”

“He’s still upset about Amanda?” That caught Danny’s attention. Who was Amanda? “I thought he was doing better after that.”

Danny could see Jack shake his head solemnly. “Some guys in our chemistry class were bugging him today about it.”

“And Danny?”

“Guess we’ll have to see.”

Vlad’s voice went quiet, realizing that Danny wasn’t listening to a word he said. “You really have a one track mind.”

“I’m concussed, if I think of too many things at once I’ll get a headache.” Danny said easily, not having to think about his retort. “And I would rather keep my train of thought of how cute you look while the importance of math.”

Vlad groaned, putting his face in his hands. Danny’s bluntness was too much for him. Danny knew that Vlad was more of the type to take the lead, but until he did Danny had that covered. 

“Once you’re healed up, and not ready to fall dead at the drop of a hat, did you want to,” Vlad was cut off by the door to the room swinging open, revealing two figured that Danny had only seen in his parents college yearbook. Two people that his parents had talked about, with great sorrow in their hearts. 

Danny wasn’t sure why it didn’t connect before when Jack was talking about them, but now that he saw their faces that looked identical to the ones in the book he knew. These two were Anne and Dan Stone, and they disappeared in the middle of their second year of school during one of the Ghost clubs investigations. 

Jack and Maddie were never able to find them, and Danny knew how it ate at his parents. They felt like they were responsible for the twin’s disappearance. They had even named Danny after Dan in memory of their friend, and now Danny got to see him up close and in the flesh. 

“Who’s the dead guy on the floor?”


End file.
